Unbiased Reviews and Undercover Price Research on Local Services

A good garden center has the inside info on the plants and plans that will make your outdoor space thrive. The opinions we collected from area consumers on garden centers they use, reported on our Ratings Tables, will help you find the best places to shop. You'll find that some stores were rated “superior” overall by at least 80 percent of their surveyed customers, but several other retailers were rated “superior” on this question by 30 percent or fewer.

Home Depot and Lowe’s scored, on average, lower than almost all of the independent stores.

But for the selection of plants they sell, these two big chains did very well on price. Lowe’s prices averaged 26 percent below the all-store average for comparable items, and Home Depot’s averaged 23 percent below the all-store average.

Though it’s not the case with most types of services and stores we examine, paying more for plants at garden centers slightly improves your odds of getting better advice, service, and plants. Many of the stores rated highest for quality charge higher-than-average prices, but some outlets evaluated on Ratings Tables that rate high for quality also have below-average prices.

For specific plants, we found enormous nursery-to-nursery price differences. For example, for a hydrangea in a #1 container, prices ranged from $22.98 to $59.95; and for a false cypress in a #3 container, prices ranged from $12.98 to $57.50.

Garden Centers Articles

Since most garden centers buy—rather than raise—most of what they sell, there is room for tremendous variation in buying standards and the quality of plants being sold. The opinions we collected from consumers on garden centers reflect these big differences.

Our undercover shoppers found huge price variation among garden centers—perhaps more than in any other subject we cover. Unfortunately, we found the lowest prices at big chains, which receive poor ratings from their customers.

Make like an HGTV star and do a rough drawing showing your house, other structures, property lines, and desired plants. Get guidelines and ideas from gardening websites, friends with attractive outdoor spaces, and the experts listed here.